Beating the willow is a classic act of sympathetic magic; that is, an act meant to arouse external forces through symbolic imitation. And here the request is for rain, and the willows beaten on the ground are an act that evokes the sight of trees lashed by storm winds, especially willows by streams of water. And this is our request: please bring rain for the sake of the natural world in which the willows sway from the force of the storm and the rains. For further discussion, see Raphael Patai’s book "The Waters," and also Yaakov Nagan, "Water, Creation, and Revelation." On the specific idea of the willows, a scholar whose name and title I don’t remember at the moment elaborated further.

In any case, after some more browsing on the internet I found that the prophets instituted this as a remembrance of the willow branches that they used to set up in the Temple near the altar. So now I’m asking about that itself: what is the source for it, and what was the reason they did so? And also, how is beating the willow connected to the willow branches they used to set up? (In the Temple, as I understand it, they didn’t beat them.)

With God's help, eve of Willow Day, 5778

To Gil — Gil Ed,

The direction you suggested, that beating the willow is a symbol of the rains striking the earth with force, fits very well with the fact that the festival of Sukkot is the time when the world is judged concerning water.

According to this idea, the Ari’s instruction to beat the willows specifically on the ground is also very understandable, even on the plain meaning, for the willows are a metaphor for the rainwaters that saturate the earth.

The necessity of the festival of Sukkot for the coming of rain is already stated in the words of the prophet, that the nations who do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot in Jerusalem — “upon them there shall be no rain.”

But all this has absolutely nothing to do with “magic.” In contrast to the pagan conception that magical acts by a person can influence “external forces” and “milk” abundance from them, the Torah teaches that there is only one Master of the world.

It was not the serpent that killed, nor the serpent that gave life. The symbolic act is not hocus-pocus operating on external forces, but rather a metaphor meant to open a person’s heart and awaken him “to look upward and subject his heart to his Father in Heaven,” and then God sends him His help from holiness and quenches his thirst.

With blessings for a happy festival,
S. Z. Levinger

With God's help, Willow Day, 5778

One can suggest an idea-based explanation for beating the willows on the ground, somewhat like Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook’s explanation (in "Olat Re’iyah") of the removal of the ashes — placing the leftover ashes from the altar on the ground — whose purpose is to transfer the spiritual impressions accumulated during the day to the ground of practical action.

So too here, one could say that at the end of the festival days, the willows take all the spiritual impressions they received while joined with the lulav, etrog, and myrtle branches, and while standing around the altar, and the spiritual charge the willow absorbed during the festival will then be implanted into the ground of action over the course of the year.

With blessings for a “joyful return to routine,”
S. Z. Levinger

It is worth noting that alongside the common image (according to one opinion in the midrash) that the willows represent the ordinary Jews, in the liturgical poem "Sukkah and Lulav for the Chosen People" (which is based on kabbalistic sources) it says: “The myrtle resembles the three Patriarchs; Moses and Aaron are the branches of willow.” According to this, the willows are “those taught by God,” who translate the great values into guidance that can be applied in practical life.

Following Gil’s explanation:
“Beating the willow is a classic act of sympathetic magic; that is, an act meant to arouse external forces through symbolic imitation.
And this is our request: please bring rain for the sake of the natural world in which the willows sway from the force of the storm and the rains.”

So since rain is not exactly at the top of my mind, today I had a different intention of “sympathetic magic” when I waved, struck, and threw the green and fresh branches onto the ground:

Please, see to it that next year a storm and tempest of rustling greens (dollars) comes down upon us.

Paint the screens of the stock exchanges in the four corners of the earth green, so that we may all have a flourishing and blossoming economy.

So at the end of the year I’ll check my tax assessment against previous years, and we’ll see whether a “classic act of sympathetic magic” is something useful.

Don’t forget, Shlomi, just remember who gave you the idea. And any donation will be gladly accepted.